ABSTRACT
Many series offer us the same story over and over, with minor variations. The challenge for content creators now is to find ways into shows and explore unique, one-of-a-kind characters. This is vital for the protagonist character, and even more relevant if writing a pilot that begins to feel stale or commonplace within a genre. Pilots may be strong on exposition and orientation of the world and its characters, but if they're purely setup, they're not showing us what the characters are going to be doing each week. Brooklyn is a place that writer/creator/director/actress Lena Dunham knows extremely well. Script length is important, particularly if the writer is a novice or just breaking in. A single-camera half-hour will be between 30–35 pages; the target length for a one-hour is around 60 pages. There's that fine line between imagination and industry practicality. A common "trap" is when a writer follows the marketplace too closely, instead of innovating.
